Measurement and disclosure of the bearer biological asset at the fair value in beekeeping: an alternative to the historical cost

The implementation of the CPC 29 [Brazilian accounting standard] and the consequent requirement for the measurement of the biological assets and the agricultural produce at the fair value brought challenges to the professionals and to the academy, in the Brazilian context in particular. The new paradigm requires entities to register gains and losses of the biological assets and of the agricultural produce, as a result of the biological transformation and of variation of the price. Recent statistics show that the agribusiness sector represents about 22% of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Beekeeping is responsible for injecting into the Brazilian economy over 50 million dollars in annual exports of honey. The objective of this research is to present a model for the measurement and disclosure of the biological assets and of the agricultural produce in beekeeping, adopting procedures standardized by the CPC 29 and by the CPC 46, especially regarding the measurement of the bearer biological assets. The multiple cases study was adopted. Three sources of evidence were applied in representative beekeeping businesses in the state of Rondonia. The results confirm the possibility of measuring a bearer biological asset using information about groups of assets and combined assets. Besides the disclosure proposed for the business, the results contribute to the consolidation of the literature on the measurement of biological assets at the fair value.